fototazo: Martin Parr

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3.07.2014

Independently Published Photobooks: Cristina De Middel

Post by Antone Dolezal

Following Cristina De Middel's highly successful self-published book The Afronauts, the Archive of Modern Conflict and Editorial RM have teamed up to publish her new book Party. Using Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s widely distributed communist propaganda publication the Little Red Book as a narrative structure; De Middel takes us through a dark and humorous journey of hypocrisy and failed Utopia. Party combines reconstructed text from Mao's handbook and the artist's own photographs taken during her travels through China. Party can be seen as both a comment about China's political façade and as an intimate diary that insinuates the artist's own lost hopes and desires.

In the second installment of Independently Published Photobooks (first installment here), De Middel discusses the evolution of her own publishing and creative process and gives insight into how to fund and market an indie photobook.

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Antone Dolezal: We met briefly a few years ago when I worked for photo-eye Bookstore and you were in town for Review Santa Fe. You had come in to show your then new self-published book The Afronauts and at the time you had mentioned you had boxes of your book sitting at your home. It couldn't have been more than a few months later and your project had become one of those rare sensations that a lot of people in the photography world were talking about. What do you think were the contributing factors that led your work to take off in the way that it did?

Cristina De Middel: I think there were several reasons. The first being I did a campaign, a crowdfunding, but not using any of the standard platforms, just through Facebook. One of the ways I funded the book project was through selling special editions that came with a print. The special edition was set to 50 and I managed to sell 30 before the book was made. Making it available through Facebook helped a lot of people know about the story when the book came out.

Definitely going to portfolio reviews helped. The most important one was the Arles festival in France. At this point the book was made; it was weird because many people who go to portfolio reviews are at a different stage and I was just there because, in a way, I was buying the time of the reviewers so they could get a copy of the book. The reviews were basically giving the reviewer a book. Everybody is at Arles and what happened was one of the reviewers showed it to Martin Parr and then he contacted me the day after and that was the changing point with the whole thing because once Martin Parr started saying that is one of the best books of the year, then it just became viral and everybody went crazy about it and I sold the 600 books I had in a matter of two months.

AD: Did Martin give you any advice on how to get those books out into the world?

CDM: Yes, Martin gave me advice and a lot of the things he had suggested were things I already had done, such as getting it in the hands of reviewers. Another good piece of advice I had received was from a very good friend who is a photographer, Ricardo Cases, who did the book on pigeons in Spain (Paloma al Aire). He sent me a list of people I should send the book to to get a review, such as Alec Soth, and some of the photobook blogs. So, I sent about 10-15 books to a number of these places. Martin really showed the book to very important people that opened the market a lot and promoted the book at a level I could never have done by myself.

AD: Your new book, Party, takes a very different approach to storytelling than that of The Afronauts. There is still an imaginative quality to the work in Party, but the mood has turned a darker corner. I'm curious to hear what led you to China to photograph this series?

CDM: Well, the thing is that the pictures that are now in the book Party were taken before The Afronauts, so I wasn't that much into staging and working in fiction. I was in China because I took a sabbatical for a year from my job as a photojournalist at a newspaper and instead of complaining about how bad the market is and how hard it is to be a photographer, which is what most photojournalists do, I said ok, instead of complaining, just take a year and do the things the way you think you should do them and if it doesn’t work then you can complain!

I went to China because it was a very special moment for me because of some personal problems and I needed to get away as far as I could, so I was just enjoying and rediscovering photography after many years of photojournalism.

So after I published The Afronauts and the whole thing had changed for me, I wanted to publish a book with this material I had from China. I took the Mao book because I thought it was the perfect platform and the perfect structure for the message I had about China. But this book is chronologically before The Afronauts.

AD: While the individual photographs in this book contain a very intimate quality, the series seems to be mostly found scenes. What was your process of photographing for this series?

CDM: It was really about going back to the beginning for me: the reason why I started taking pictures, reacting to things that I didn't understand and documenting the small parts that surround me. Like street photography mixed with personal diary. So with Party there is no production, no staging, nothing. It's walking, meeting people, following stories and taking pictures that suggest a bigger idea through the small details. I came back from China with 3,000 images that I liked, but there was no story behind it. So, I used the Mao book to give a structure to the series.

Everything I thought about China was that communism is really a big joke, so I made the whole thing into a funny game. But the book can be read as a political statement, which it is - I am using one of the strongest political books that there is. The book can also be read as a personal diary because it revolved around a very sentimental break-up; you know those moments in life when you don't believe in anything and it is the failure of a utopia? So it can be read on two levels, as a political statement, but also as a personal diary to reflect the failure of a dream.

AD: There is also a quality of transformation in the book, both with you and also in the whole Chinese society that is portrayed. It is certainly a metaphor for your personal experience as well.

CDM: Yes, it was a perfect journey for me; it was exactly what I needed.

AD: So you didn’t have an initial idea of what you were trying to convey when you began photographing?

CDM: I had the big picture. China is one of the last communist countries and it is still ruled by a Communist party but at the same time it is one of the most aggressive economic powers and a capitalist society, so it is hypocrisy. That was the big idea, to try and document this by little parts and to confront the traditional China and bring the basis of the statements and formal system to real life by adapting the Little Red Book to my own opinion and turning it into something that comically made sense.

AD: You use Mao's Little Red Book as a structure to tie in the photographs. In fact, you omit words from the LRB and choose to tell your own experience of Chinese culture through your use of selected text. The language you choose has an underlying and allusive sense of conflict and suppression that hints at the country's past and even current realities, but also convey certain personal undercurrents. Could you elaborate on your decision to use Mao's LRB as a structural format for expressing your personal experience during your time in China?

CDM: You go to China and you know it's a communist country, but you find out it's not at all, it's completely the opposite. So it was about adapting the reading of that book and turning it into something more honest. You could make a lot of sentences, the combinations are infinite, but I chose the ones that support this simple idea that China is formally communist, but it actually is not. It was a very funny exercise to do.

AD: Party was published through the Archive of Modern Conflict and Editorial RM. How did it come about to collaborate with these publishers?

CDM: The Archive of Modern Conflict contacted me right after publishing The Afronauts because it is the kind of story they like. And since then we have been collaborating on many different things. Most of the projects I am involved with now are related to archives I have found with them. So it is this huge support and I love the way they work and we get along very well. And with Ramón from RM we are just friends, we met after The Afronauts. My experience has always been through self-publishing and I have everything under control… I decide everything, so basically I just want to work with friends that would respect my decisions. I guess I couldn't work with any publisher because I know exactly what I want and it can become a bit difficult. So, I just work with friends that will say, 'Ok, whatever Cristina!' So at the moment I am very lucky, it's a very funny and enjoyable process to work with these two people.

AD: AMC is probably my favorite photobook publisher at the moment. And I know that is a pretty bold statement, but it seems serendipitous considering your personal conflict and the conflict presented in your new work that it would be published with AMC.

CDM: AMC approaches different subjects in a wide variety of ways. They have a more open mind than most of the market. Maybe it's because they don’t have to struggle for economic support, but they have a system in which they are allowed to be brave and more experimental. It is a blessing for me; working with them gives me complete freedom. It was definitely the best thing that happened to me after the success of The Afronauts.

AD: Do you see yourself continuing to self-publish in the future?

CDM: Yes, I really like the self-publishing process. It is a funny thing to do, it means a lot of work, but now I have a certain structure and I can work in a different way.

AD: What advice would you give to photographers who are pursuing self-publishing?

CDM: I think the best advice would be that publishing a photobook doesn't have to be rooted in your equation from the very beginning. You have to be honest when doing the series and consider – as it happened to me - that you might have to talk about this series for two or three years. So you need to be really really sure about what you did.

With some series and some projects it's not a good idea to do a book. The best way of showing your story or sharing your idea could be an exhibition, multi-media, a video game, I don't know, there are so many possibilities. So make sure that the book is actually the best platform for the series. Once you are sure, just try to be as visible as you can. Submit your work to all of the competitions, go to portfolio reviews, be active on Facebook, and really make your work visible. You have to be very active at being self-employed.

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Cristina De Middel (Spain, 1975) is a photographer based in London that has been working for different newspapers in Spain and with NGO's such as Doctors Without Borders or the Spanish Red Cross for more than eight years.

She combines her strictly documentary assignments with more personal projects that have been awarded and exhibited in several occasions (incuding PhotoFolio Arles 2012, Deutsche Börse Prize and the Infinty Award from the ICP in New York).

This B-side of Cristina's work deliberately asks the audience to question the language and the veracity of photography as a document, and plays with reconstructions or archetypes that blur the border between reality and fiction.

Antone Dolezal is a New Mexico based artist and writer who primarily makes work about the American social landscape and its relationship to history and folklore. His work has been featured on NPR, Oxford American, Huffington Post and PDN Online and his writing has appeared in photo-eye, Ahorn and Fraction Magazine. Antone recently published his first photobook Spook Light Chronicles vol. 1 with collaborating artist Lara Shipley. Vol. 2 is available for pre-order.

5.04.2013

Publisher Q&A2: Curt Holtz of Prestel Publishing

Last year we posted a "Publisher Q&A" series, featuring 12 short interviews with a range of publishers including Alec Soth, Shane Lavalette, Bryan Formhals, Jeffrey Ladd, and Jason Fulford on their presses and sites and the state of the publishing market (see the site links page for more links). It was a popular series, and we've decided to add another 12 entries to the series with more extended questions.

The first four posts of this second series were with Éanna de Fréine of The Velvet Cell, David Schoerner of Hassla Books, Luca Desienna of Gomma Magazine Ltd., and Hannah Watson of Trolley Books. Today we follow with Curt Holtz, Photography Editor of Prestel Publishing.

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Publication: Prestel Publishing
Location: Munich, Germany
Format: print book

fototazo: What is the back-story on how Prestel formed?

Curt Holtz: Prestel was formed in Germany almost 90 years ago and is one of the leading publishers of art and photography books worldwide.

f: What are the particular or unique strengths of the books Prestel publishes? What separates it from other publishers?

CH: The strength of Prestel is its own worldwide distribution network along with the high standard of its productions. The publishing house has continually adjusted to market developments and trends but has stayed true to its commitment to publish the best work of artists, designers, and photographers up to the present day.

f: What is your process for deciding what to publish?

CH: Deciding on what books to publish is based on a careful and stringent interactive process between Editorial and Sales in which every proposal is analyzed for its strengths and weaknesses—both in terms of its individual merits and its salability—after which a decision to take on a book, or not, is made.

f: How do you view the contemporary landscape of photography books as a product and as a market in relation to the past?

CH: The photobook market has grown considerably in the last ten years or so, also as a collector’s audience, especially after the publication of the History of the Photobook volumes by [Martin] Parr and [Gerry] Badger. Programmatically, we tend to differentiate between "art" photography books that cater for a smaller, somewhat niche audience and those for a larger, more popular audience, where photography is simply a vehicle to convey the respective subject matter. While the latter books usually involve larger print-runs and more financial risk as a publisher, the former have been quite successful over the past few years, especially with the increase in marketing potential through the Internet, blogs, and social media.

f: How do you see the book market and products evolving in the near future?

CH: I continue to believe strongly in the future of the photobook as a printed object. The type and feel of the stock, color saturation, format and binding along with the changes that these materials go through when they age, is all so markedly different to a digital version. And the market for these products is becoming increasingly more global through the Internet thus guaranteeing their success if they are made right.

f: Lots of people have commented over the past few years that we’re in a photobook Golden Age. Do you think this is true? If so, what are the dynamics that would define this as a Golden Age?

CH: Yes, the photobook is experiencing an amazing moment in its brief history, perhaps exactly due to the massive changes looming on the horizon through the digital era. I think there are still some amazing books out there waiting to be published and that the "golden" moment of the photobook is far from over.

f: What do you believe are the strengths and inherent limitations of the photobook format, as opposed to showing photographs on a wall or in a digital or multi-media format?

CH: There is only so much you can do in producing a book in printed form, especially when the project is bound by commercial limitations, which is mostly the case. As I mention above though, the strength of the photobook lies completely in the materiality of the object as such, as opposed to digital, or other versions.

f: Is a photographer’s style, voice, or "sensibility" something equally apparent in their photobooks as in their images?

CH: A photobook has its own language beyond the images themselves and so many aspects such as paper stock, format, extent, binding, etc. form a part of what kind of sensibility it transports.

f: What are as the trends in contemporary photobooks that you are noticing as you engage with new book proposals on a daily basis?

CH: Fashion photography—but not photographed in a traditional sense—is probably the most successful trend in the photobook market right now, but social documentary themes sensitively and sensibly photographed remain of strong interest.

f: What has been your highlight in working with the company?

CH: Singling out one or two projects wouldn’t be fair. Every project has its own unique story, before and after.

f: What are the next steps for Prestel?

CH: Keeping the photobook alive in its unique and singular printed form.

5.24.2012

Interview: Blake Andrews, Part III

This is the third of three interview posts with Blake Andrews. Part I can be found here and Part II here. We have a contest connected with this interview that you can take part in by clicking here.

f: The most personally important of your two major influences:

a. Garry Winogrand
b. Lee Friedlander
c. Both

BA: C. Winogrand and Friedlander are definitely two of my favorites, and my style probably reflects elements of both. Winogrand said that every photo is a battle of form vs. content, and I think that's a good lens through which to compare them. Generally Winogrand was more concerned with content and Friedlander with form. That may be an oversimplification but I think there's some truth to it. I think what binds them together, and what connects them to my photography, is that they are / were both very concerned with the photograph as the primary tool of expression. That's in contrast to the current style. Many photographers now put the photograph in a secondary role. It's at the service of some idea. It's an illustrative tool. But for Winogrand and Friedlander, and for me, the photo comes first. You don't know what the idea is until you see the photo. So the photo becomes the way to explore the world, not just the end product of that exploration.

I also empathize with both men because of their work habits. Both were / are absolutely committed to making photos regardless of outside events. Winogrand in particular. I think he photographed as much out of blind compulsion as anything. He just did it because that's what he did, and he felt better afterward, like eating. Or maybe taking a big dump is a better analogy. A huge 20,000 roll steaming dump that someone is going to have to deal with. Because it's fucking important.

f: You work with humor a lot more (and a lot better) than most photographers that I can think of, and it’s something I have always thought difficult to pull off in photography. Who else do you think works well with humor?

BA: [Elliott] Erwitt is probably the name that pops into everyone's mind first. He is a master of a certain humorous style. In that same vein, some of Kertesz, Doisneau, and Weegee have a humorous edge. More recently there's Kalvar, Mermelstein, and Parr. Those are sort of the platinum humor collection. In the younger crop I like Gordon Stettinius, Michael Northrup, Asger Carlsen, the iN-PUBLiC crew. Some of Chris Verene's photos are funny, especially with his captions. Many of the relatively new reappropriations are great. Champion Pig, Awkward Family Photos, Useful Photography, and stuff in that vein. There's one Tumblr that replaces hands with smaller versions. I mean WTF? That's funny. Sultan and Mandel's Evidence is probably the funniest photo book I own, but it's more absurdist.

I think most photographers steer clear of humor because it's confused with light material. But humor needn't be light. My favorite humor is absurdist, zen koan style. Philosophically that's as deep as it gets. Camus, Sartre, the existentialists, they all bumped their heads against absurdism. Humor doesn't have to be Three Stooges slapstick. Recently I've been enjoying the older episodes of Tim and Eric's Awesome show. It's the most absurd thing I've seen on TV in a while. It constantly bewildering. If someone could convert that brand of humor into photography, I'd buy their book.

f: Talk us through a day of shooting with you. Explain your specific ways of working, your tendencies, particular rhythms and habits.

BA: I don't think there's any typical day. How I shoot depends on where I am and what I'm shooting. When I'm shooting for the Grid projects I am often in residential or light industrial areas without a lot of pedestrians. In Portland I typically shoot the morning after photo meetings. As soon as there is enough light I drive to a new place in the grid, park, and start walking. I generally try to make a loop but the only real direction is toward the new. I avoid streets I've been on already. If I see an alley I generally go that way. If I see commercial activity I'm often drawn to that. I walk for about three or four hours until my legs are tired, shooting pretty much nonstop. Anything that catches my eye I photograph. Usually I can cover most of a grid (2.25 square miles) in three or four visits strung out over the course of a month.

With the Eugene grids I break it up into smaller chunks. I go out for one or two hours several times during the month. Generally the shooting pattern is the same as with Portland grid. I shoot anything that strikes me. I stay in new areas. I want to see it all block by block.

Downtown Portland is where I do most of my urban street shooting, and there my pattern is a bit different. Every week or so I'll park downtown and spend a few hours walking. Often I see gallery shows on the way, so I wind up parking at Blue Sky. From there my "normal" circuit is up Broadway to Pioneer Courthouse Square, around the bus malls and parks and whatever looks interesting, then back down 10th by Powell's through the Pearl back to Blue Sky. What I shoot depends a bit on my mood. I often look for people doing interesting things or wearing interesting outfits. Sometimes I follow them for a few blocks. I always shoot pigeons and car racks. Sometimes I will stake out a corner for a little while if the light is good or there's a good background scene. I know the city very well so there aren't many surprises. But that said, things always change. You never know what will be around the next corner. My shooting downtown is denser than in the grids. I might go through two or three rolls an hour compared to maybe half that rate in the grids. I only shoot the Leica downtown. Whereas in the grids I bring the wider quiver which lately has been Leica, Diana, Yashica TLR, and sometimes a Holga with color.

I don't generally shoot much downtown Eugene. It's pretty dead and there's not enough anonymity or suspense. Sometimes I shoot near the University where there's a lot of foot traffic.

Between all of that shooting is just my normal day to day photography. I always have my camera running errands. Sometimes I shoot from the car, especially if it's raining. And of course at home I shoot my kids and family all the time. Lately I've been exploring my kitchen with a small point and shoot digital camera. Shooting fork tines and food scraps and whatever's around. It's a good camera for getting in close.

But there's no real typical day. I shoot whatever's in front of me, and that's always changing.

f: How would you say you have changed and grown as a photographer over time?

I'm generally looser as a shooter and tighter as an editor. I'm less formal with a camera than I used to be. I used to spend a lot of time lining up shapes and worrying about precision in photos. Now I'm more open to chance and natural flow. I don't want to dominate the moment so much. I want my photos to look more like snapshots than formal landscapes. I want to tap into that thing that can't be tapped into, but you know it when it's been tapped. And that's where the editing comes in. What's been tapped? I'm pickier now about images. I won't print some now that I might have printed before, especially street stuff. It has to have some twist or spark which is fairly rare.

I have more experience looking at other work now. I keep up with what's out there and I think it's made me more skeptical. I'm more open to other photographic approaches but also more picky, more sure of myself. I used to look through the books at Powell's and marvel at all the great photo books that were out there. I wanted so many. Now when I browse the stacks I wonder, "How did this shit get published?" Most of it strikes me as pretentious crap. So I guess I'm more of an arrogant asshole now. At the same time I'm more receptive to a wider range of approaches. I have an appreciation for portraits, for a example, in a way that I didn't just five years ago. So it's a paradox. Go figure.

f: You have said a number of times you work off Winogrand's motto: “I photograph to see what something looks like in a picture” and that Friedlander taught you that “a photo can be just about visual pleasure with no other burden.” True to these comments, your visual intelligence shows in your work - the combination of two incongruous elements to make a third meaning, plays with geometry, visual puns, the way you line things up and cut things off are unique and impressively developed skills.

Going beyond that, it seems your bodies of images, your writing and even your site push to understand and structure life - via lists, classifications, labeling, pointing out, collecting, and grid projects - and that it’s ultimately about the failure to be able to do so because it’s impossible to fully organize, accurately classify, and keep up with all the images and lists and projects.

My thoughts on your work are:
a. astute
b. horsefeathers
c. something you already thought
d. there’s something to it, but...

BA: D. I just like making photographs. It's much less enjoyable for me to deal with the aftermath. I know that sounds like a cop-out, but it's just how I am. That said, I am actually quite organized. If you ask me to find a particular photo I can generally locate it quickly. My main organizing technique is by date. Every photo gets a date on the back, along with a few other notes to help me find the negative. But mostly I keep track chronologically. I think this is important not only because dates are vital, but because it says something about my style. All these photos I'm making form a chronological chain. It's a life journal as much as it is anything else. In a way dating simplifies everything. No two photos can happen at once. Every image has a place.

Dates are being erased and that's one of my pet peeves. We're losing our cultural memory. Sometimes I'll load a re-released CD into iTunes and the date comes up as 2005 or something when I know the material was recorded in 1975. To me that's erasing history. It's criminal. I have the same problem with some blogs and Tumblrs. If the posts aren't dated I can't read them. It's just a mishmash. A date provides so much context. Every book I've ever opened I've looked at the date before anything else.

f: Lastly, what’s next for you, Blake?

BA: One of my dreams since childhood has been to make an NFL roster, so I'm going to give that a crack this fall.

5.17.2012

Interview: Blake Andrews, Part II

This is the second of three interview posts with Blake Andrews. The first part can be found here. The third part will be published next Thursday, May 24th.

f: Alec Soth started off a recent article he wrote on Martin Parr in the Minneapolis StarTribune by calling him the Jay-Z of documentary photography.

BA: I think what Soth was referring to is a sort of hyper-contemporary vibe. Both Parr and Jay-Z seem to have a hand in many cultural outlets nowadays. They almost define contemporary. But also both have a loose experimental quality. Always moving into new territory. And the fascination with bling. Truth is I'm not a huge fan of Jay-Z. I'll take MF Doom over Jay-Z.

f: In respect to your plea for more interactive posts - discussed last week in the first part of this interview - complete the following photographer-musician analogy. Martin Parr is to Jay-Z as Blake Andrews is to _________.

BA: Woody Guthrie. I'm guessing this relates to my survey from several months back comparing Dylan and Frank. Guthrie for a few reasons. First of all, he was absolutely prolific. Many photographers make a point of never going somewhere without a camera. I suspect Guthrie was like that with his guitar. He carried it everywhere. If he couldn't fit the guitar he at least had a pen and notebook. I doubt there were many days when he wasn't writing songs or lyrics. Second, he was fiercely independent and had a deep suspicion of institutions which I share. I am deeply cynical about corporations, government, and general group-think. Third, he was a bit of a renaissance man. He wasn't just a songwriter. He was an artist, a dad, a writer. And just a good spirit in general. So I admire the guy. I wish he'd written a blog.

I've had a tickertape message on the bottom of my camera for years. It says "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS" A direct homage to Guthrie.

f: And as a way to push towards interactive posts, I would like to invite you to make a creative competition for other photographers with me, the results of which we can publish both here and on B.

BA: One competition that I've been curious to try is based on predicted outcomes. You set out 20 well-known photos by famous photographers from a wide variety of types and eras. Then people rank them from most favorite to least favorite, 1 to 20. Then collate, average, and form a general ranking based on all voters. That's the simple part. The second layer is to have people guess at the overall rankings before they're revealed. Perhaps this would happen during the initial voting, or shortly after. Then collate predictions. The person who predicts favorites most accurately is the winner. This would only work with a large enough pool of voters. At least 100 or so.

[This contest is now live! You can participate by clicking here.]

f: You have actively explored the medium itself, working with panoramas, color and black and white, a range of formats and cameras. You have published your images as playing cards and are working on a faux-postcard project. What drives you to expand the range of approaches to photography in this way? Is there something you feel you can do with these explorations that 35mm black and white cannot do?

BA: My camera experiments have typically been winter flings. When the days get shorter and the rains set it, it's not as easy to roam outside with a camera. But I still need to make photos. So I've explored a variety of ways to shoot inside using flash or slow shutter speed or a combination of the two. I've toyed with Noblex, Diana, Holga, digital point 'n shoot, Fuji Instax, etc. The only common denominator is that they're all hand held. They're quick 'n dirty cameras, no tripod, no fuss. Typically I go on a serious bender with a camera and shoot the crap out of it for a few months before the buzz gradually wears off.

That's fine for winter. But during nice weather I kick into high gear and that's basically 35 mm black and white. That's been the core of my work for the past 20 years. It feels right because it rewards experimentation and multiple frames. There's very little penalty for pressing the shutter, as opposed to say 4 x 5. I know that for most people 35 mm is a dead form. It's seen as anachronistic and passe but I can't help it. It's just how I see. If I want my photos to get any attention it probably has to be in another format. So I've tinkered with many methods, but 35 black and white still gives me the most satisfaction. I shoot a few rolls every day from about May through October.

I think whatever you use you need to commit fully to it. You can't be fiddling around wondering what camera to use. It has to be one or the other, and ideally just one lens too. You have to see and think like a camera, and that's hard to do if you're shuffling between several. At least that's my experience.

f: A related question: you have said in a previous interview that as a child, you thought photography was a mere recording of a scene and because of this you weren’t interested in it. It’s interesting, then, that despite expanding the range of approaches to photography as mentioned above in the previous question, that one of the few lines you do not cross is that line between “straight” and “constructed” photography. What keeps you on this side of that line? Have you ever tried constructing a scene for an image?

BA: I have constructed images for the blog. The postcards, for example, are constructed. I substituted blue skies for grey. For applications like that or for commercial applications I think constructing images is fine. But for examining the world, which I think photography does very well, constructed images aren't very interesting to me. They don't show the world so much as they show what's in someone's mind. Nothing wrong with that. I'm just more interested in the world. And that applies to other forms too. I only read nonfiction. I generally prefer documentaries to fictional films. I guess I have my quirks.

f: In a Wired article on photobloggers, you also mentioned what you’d like to see less of in the photography world: “Less 6 x 7 aspect ratio color photos of the human-nature interface delicately composed, with everything in focus; less portraiture with desaturated colors; less perfectionism; less constructed images and more found images; less commercial advertising on blogs; and less equipment talk.” Building from this previous list, please list the 10 most painful trends in contemporary photography in 2012, in reverse order from 10 to 1 with 1 being the most painful.

BA: I will probably get in trouble here. First of all, everyone is totally free to do what they want. As with any Top Ten list, please take these with a grain of salt.

10. The widespread inability among practitioners to differentiate an average print from a great one.

9. Thought before seeing. It should be the other way. Shoot first, ask questions later.

8. Conscious perfectionism and unconscious imperfections.

7. Film growing more expensive as it gradually phases out.

6. The planned obsolescence of most cameras in use now, and the correlating obsolescence of work being made with them.

5. Neo-pictorialism. I am all for shooting Holga / Diana / Instagram, as long as the material isn't sappy. But when blurriness combines with an overly sentimental vibe, it feels like something that was done, and better, 100 years ago.

4. Photos without credits attached. Every photo printed or online should include some reference to the creator's name. I'd guess that less than half actually do.

3. The idea that everyone's a photographer. Everyone has a thermometer in their medicine cabinet. That doesn't mean we're all doctors.

2. The conflation of a photographer's life story with their images in assessing aesthetic merit.

1. Homogenization. In photography as well as in the broader culture, homogenization is the most powerful, evil force we face. All 7 billion of us are unique. Be yourself.

f: And what gives you optimism for the photography world today?

BA: 10. The ocean of photographic archives currently being put online by various public entities. A very powerful resource in all sorts of ways, some not even thought of yet.

9. Street photography's apparent revival. Possibly a reaction to photography's hyper-conceptual direction.

8. Cupertino. Post. Applesauce.

7. General improvements in color printing over the past decade. Forty years ago good color prints were generally inaccessible. Now they can be made by anyone.

6. Looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ my lord and savior. I'm expecting him to help me fine tune my portfolio.

5. The decreased environmental impact of picturemaking. The marginal cost to the environment of taking a digital snapshot is virtually zero compared to the age of paper and chemicals. Of course the planet is already fucked anyway so I'm not sure it matters much in the end.

4. The decline of matting in galleries. It's about time we phased out this Victorian relic. Maybe glazing will be next.

3. The idea that everyone's a photographer. Never has photography been more accessible to all. Moholy-Nagy said "the illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the camera as well as the pen." I think we have finally, only quite recently, arrived at that future.

2. The photobook renaissance. These are the glory days of photobook publishing.

1. Every time I press the shutter I'm an optimist. The idea that the next image will be special is what keeps me going.

Part III can be found here

3.02.2012

Reading Shortlist 3.2.12

The Reading Shortlist is an occasional post with a listing of recommended readings and links. A recommendation does not necessarily suggest an agreement with the contents of the post. For previous shortlists, please visit the site links page.

Andrea Frazzetta, The New York Times Magazine, "Nollywood's Walk of Fame" Frazzetta's images accompany an article written by Andrew Rice for the magazine about the $500 million-a-year "Nollywood" film industry of Nigeria.

James Dodd, Flickr, "A parting note" Dodd explains his reasons for leaving Flickr and in doing so gives an insight into the current state of what was once a central hub for photography community and sharing. He also touches on the question of sharing your work online for free.

Robert Frank, LIFE (May 21, 1951), "Speaking of Pictures" After checking out this early photo essay by a 26-year-old Frank in Paris of....chairs, I'm prepared to say The Americans is better.

Sam Grobart, The New York Times, A Review of the Lytro Camera Grobart examines the first Lytro which allows you to focus the image on your computer in post-production. Includes a link to an example image that you can experiment with.

Impossible Colors, Wikipedia A fascinating thought: that under special artificial laboratory conditions it is possible to see colors ordinarily impossible. Hat tip to T. F. Tolhurst.

Liverly Morgue In case you missed it, The New York Times launched a new blog on Tumblr featuring images from their photo "morgue" of millions of pictures. The reverse sides of the images are provided and are frequently as interesting as the images themselves.

Sebastiao Salgado, Looking Back At You This link is to part one of a six-part documentary on YouTube about the Brazilian photographer Salgado. Includes lengthy interviews, video of his working process from his cameras to his prints, and footage of him working in the field.

Alec Soth, Minneapolis StarTribune, A photographer's-eye view of Martin Parr Soth calls Parr the "Jay-Z of documentary photography." Includes a link to a second article with a video about Parr's visit to Minnesota to photograph ice this past January.

Larry Towell, CNN, Faces of the Taliban Magnum photographer Larry Towell hired an Afghan journalist in order to enter Taliban camps to make these photographs that give a face the insurgency group.

Pieter Wisse, 500 Photographers Blog, Shut down your computer and go live! Wisse eloquently gives us the reminder we all periodically need to hear. Thanks Pieter.